Find a remote work schedule that works, with Angela Hathaway

I miss the warm, salty Mediterranean and good espresso right now. I miss the feeling of waking up in a new city, excited about finding a new café with those delectable little cinnamon biscotti, while listening to people around speak a language I’m only just starting to understand.

Spain. If you haven’t been yet, why?

I met Angela Hathaway my first week in Spain. We stayed at Sun and Co. coworking/coliving space in Javea, a postcard-beautiful beach town on the south coast of Spain. It was like staying in hostel for grown-ups. During the day, busy remote workers and entrepreneurs would tap away at their computers and then group by group, head out to explore the town. Sometimes we’d stay up late drinking wine and discussing our aspirations. One day, we all went snorkeling in a sea cave together. Another day, we shared paella in a tiny little bay. It was perfect.

Angela is a public relations specialist for consumer products and she travels while she does it. I met Angela after she’d only been abroad for about a month, so it was interesting to learn how she was transitioning. She shares some good insights about managing your schedule while traveling in this episode of the Own Up Grown-Up podcast.

“Once you know how to plan your day it makes enjoying your time in a different city or country that much easier.”—Angela Hathaway

I love meeting people when they’re getting to the point of settling into their new lifestyles, probably because it was such a revelation for me. You can have this much fun and do amazing work? You can have your espresso and savour the shit out of that drink.

One of the things people don’t tell you about working and traveling is how hard it can be to feel like you’re working hard enough without missing out on local experiences. You can easily get caught up too much in either.

Angela chooses to keep her schedule aligned with New York, which meant that while in Spain she didn’t get started until 1 or 2pm in the afternoon. I met several people that worked late into the night, but during the day you’d happen upon them enjoying a walk by the beach. As Angela says, with her schedule she has enough time to enjoy where she’s visiting while also getting work done. And when you’re at work, you’re hyperfocused because working longer hours means fewer hours exploring.

Structuring your schedule to optimize the best of both worlds doesn’t just apply to working while in another country. When I’m home visiting family for a week or working on a big side-project (like “Work from Home (or Anywhere)”) I apply this same thinking—how do I spend my time to get the most out of everything?

Think about how much time you waste watching television or scrolling through Facebook, or how much time you spend in pointless meetings at your office job. That time could be better spent doing things you actually enjoy or that add something to your day or life or someone else’s life. It could be spent wandering cobblestone streets in old cities or sipping vino tinto at a tapas bar.

Where can you start adjusting how you spend your time? And how can that get you to where you want to go…in life, work, etc.? I’d love to hear your ideas—send me a tweet!